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Does someone know why Volition made cap ships so useless at fighting each other in FS1? In FS2 they added beams and flak, which really made them effective, but it seems like conventional weapons are still highly ineffective (blob turrets). In FS1 cap ships have mostly just blob turrets, and a few missile launchers if I remember rightly... but still, the damage output is bad and the biggest issue is the speed of the blobs. With such slow moving blobs they can barely hit the broadside of a barn, let alone fighter and bomber waves. When you look at cap ships comparisons for example ships in B5 or BSG, their weaponry is much faster moving and way more efficient. I get that the designers didn't want the game to complete itself without any player involvement (And the limitations of computing at the time), but in FS1 it just seems like cap ships are largely so useless, all except for the mighty Lucifer.. Could it have hurt to have more rapid pulse type weapons?

I get the feeling that blob turrets are really intended to be more of a deterrent and are not really an effective way of delivering damage by design. Although it is true that FS1 caps are very under powered, the main focus is on the fighter and bomber delivery. Afterall a wing of bombers is typically more effective than any cap ship weapons in the FS1 area, and even in FS2 a wing of bombers will make short work of a cruiser or similar mid-ranged ship. It's also worth pointing out that while a FS2 cap can deliver high damage with beam weapons, it is limited by the terms of the engagement (range, position etc) whereas a wing of bombers can get themselves into the necessary blind spots.

Ultimately though, if the player had nothing to do whenever caps are involved, missions wouldn't be particularly interesting
In a different kind of game, you might have cap ships squaring off with each other while the player (and fighter-sized craft) have their own separate objectives.

Capships aside, Cruisers in FS1 are pretty tough - especially the Aten, Lilith etc. Their turrets tend to be quite accurate if you don't move around enough. When FS2 came along though, V got a beam boner and suddenly every ship has beams.